The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Drill press

Went out today to do some errands and stopped by a few second hand places and found this drill press that I thought would be handy especially since I was planning on doing a few door hinges . Did not take to long to clean up looked like it was not used very often.

that looks like a pretty good one. I added another drill press to my equipment stash a few months ago, but mine is a 3 foot travel radial model that weighs a couple of tons and runs on 3 phase electric power.
Jerry

Looks like the same Delta drill press I have. Not very big, but I use it all the time.

Nice, what rpm range does it have?

I also would be interested in the RPM range. Most newer drill presses run too high rpm for any drills over about 5/16 when drilling steel.
Drills last longer at slower speeds, heavy feed and with cutting oil.
In wood. it does not matter.

Don

Might want to check how small the chuck goes, it’s the small steel bits that sometimes won’t grab in larger chuck on my Delta

Chuck

I will have to check the rpm range it does have pull-ups on top under the cover that change the speed .

There should be a chart under the pully cover that will show the RPM's and belt positions.

Don

Here is the speeds

I have one the virtual twin of that one but branded Ryobi and with a top speed of 3050 rpm. It was a gift from a neighbor. Here is a hint...if you extend the quill and feel play at the end while it is at the furthest distance down, make yourself some shims using .016" brass cut about 1/2 inch wide. Bend them in a square shape and work them down between the quill and the shaft collar at top (you'll see where the problem is). You may have to sand the final shim to get it right. I had to shim mine about .044" to remove all the slop. There is a fine line when you do this...a line where it won't stick but feels almost like it wants to. Grease it using disc wheel bearing grease. Mine is so wobble-free I can speed it up to the highest speed and use it as a simple mill with an end cutting bit and an x-y table. At first I thought the chuck was causing the trouble but the chuck turned out to only have a slight runout.

Those are versatile machines, to be sure. I have both the Delta press and the Ryobi. There actually significant differences between them beyond just the speeds. The Ryobi's motor, curiously, has no tag so I'm not sure of its HP. The Delta is 1/4 hp. They may be the same.

The Ryobi is physical larger and has nice nice features, like a geared crank to adjust the table height. The handles on the arbor (?... the part with the chuck that goes down) are longer and beefier.

As Jon observed, the Delta won't slow down as far as the Ryobi but they are fairly close in the top end.

Neither one of them probably belong in a professional shop. They're probably aimed at the hobbyist like me.

The Ryobi is probably meant for the hobbyist with a few more $$ 😉

My Delta was purchased new by me about 25 years ago and has never let me down. Jerry even used it for some work on my 261. My Ryobi was a gift from Paul Morgan and was his dad's. I have it set up as my mortising machine with a mortiser sent to me by Mark Smith.

That mortiser illuminated another difference between the two machines.... originally, I was going to use it on the delta. But... it was about .25 inch too big in its diameter and wouldn't clamp to the arbor. Sooooo.... Jerry made me an aluminum collar which was going to work elegantly.... until I discovered that the Delta arbor lacked sufficient travel to make it fit or work. It the table all the way Don and the arbor all the way up... the mortising bit still extended through the hole in the table. No Bueno, as the Swedes say...

So I tried the Ryobi.... after a bit of trial and error, I discovered Jerry's collar works great on the Ryobi if I inverted it. The Ryobi has plenty of travel and I have used the mortiser a lot.

Jon... interesting. I'll have to pay attention to the wobble now.

I don't know where it went but I had an owner's manual on the Ryobi that said it was 1/3 hp at 1725 rpm. Please let me know if you need me to make a digital image of the part I had to shim.

Yes, please take that pic

Yes good imfo and thanks for the tip Jon.I used this last night getting the pins out of the hinges the first one I thought all of my bits were dull ,I guess the pin was hardened from heat possibly ,switched out a lot of bits before it came out the chuck fell off and I thought oh no my 60 buck drill was toast but did not realize the chuck just held in by the tapered shaft .Decided to slow the speed down as another tip by 2 ton .The other hinges (I did 4 as I had a few spares for practice ) Went a lot better .

Too much speed work hardens the steel and quickly dulls the bit. Sometimes I’ll use a carbide drill to break thru the work hardened surface then go back to HS drills. HS drills are not all the same. USA made are far superior to imports. Titanium coated from HF are the worst.

Pictures, pictures........

Here is what it looked like...in the first image below you can see where I jammed the square shaped spacer down around the square part of the quill. Then I had to repeat that until I finally got it tight. I greased it well also. Hope this helps. I wrapped the .016" brass around a 1/2 inch socket piece to form it.

Mark,
Until we get back on internet it may be hard to share but I'll get some photos of the things I've made with your mortiser. It's been pretty cool!

Can that square shank be drilled and tapped for a 1/4" or 5/16" thread? Then screw a tall bolt into it and epoxy a ball bearing onto the top of the assembly for the bolt to slide through.
Jerry

I have a delta floor model drill press very similar to the bench model and have the mortising attachment. I built a farm table and allot of the joints were assembled using mortise, tenon and dowel joinery. Woodworking is my second love!

Here are a few pictures. First two were making the mortise, next making the tenon. Fourth is the slot and tenon for the bread board. Last is the completed table.

Maybe a quarter inch hole, Jerry. Anything larger than that might be on the edge. That is either where the wear happened or it is where sloppy mfg work produced a too-small square at the very top.

A small ball bearing or even a Torrington needle bearing would stabilize the top of the quill a lot more effectively than a piece of shim stock and it would be a pretty simple matter to support it on the outside with J-B Weld or something similar. It would outlast a shim by many years, also.
Jerry

Here’s my 1983 Packard Precision 16 speed, 3/4hp drill press.
5/8” capacity

Nice stout floor standing unit. Haven’t had any issues. The adjustable table can go all the way down close to the floor.

It has been running at 300 RPM for years.

My Delta floor model was made sometime in the 1950s, and has a similar step pulley speed system- - - -plus I've installed a second motor and a sprag clutch setup to give it twice as many speeds- - - - -24 in all, I believe. The table can be swung aside to use the base as a platform for really tall stuff- - - -like a Stovebolt engine block.
Jerry

Nice machine , “Ask the man who owns one” !

I have the same drill press but the label on mine says "Brico" and "Vancouver BC". It's a very heavy thing! I have some Morse taper shank bits for it.

I have one very similar as well (16 speed, 3/4 horse) floor model. Bought mine around 30 years ago. It is an import. Very handy for all projects.

John

With apologies to Crocodile Dundee- - - - -

"That's not a drill press- - - - - -THIS is a drill press!"

www.ebay.com/itm/256653280071?

I bought one very similar to the one in the above link about a year ago. Just got to get it set up in the shop sometime soon!
Jerry

That’s a big one Jerry. Just a little too big for most home shops. Not to mention the need for 3 phase. I’d love to check out your shop someday.

John

During my machinist career I ran a South Bend similar to this one. It would drive 3” bits thru stainless steel.

I own a Delta floor model very similar to the Packard Precision Craig has shown us. It’s a work horse in my shop.

You're welcome anytime- - - -just be prepared to be disappointed at the disorganized mess! Every time I take one step forward toward getting the shop in shape, somebody else gets sick, or another crisis gets in the way. "Maybe one day!" There's lots of acreage available around it for expansion. Thanks to a very generous almost giveaway by Evan (Coilover) I've got a rotary phase converter, so 3 phase power isn't a problem.
LOL!
Jerry

Will say that this thread got me to realize that I did not have any spare V belts stashed away for when the current ones decide to suddenly retire. Thank you Amazon for sending me some back up's. Oh and while I'm at it, an extra one for the compressor.